Can a dementia care facility evict and forcibly remove a patient from the Memory care facility if the responsible POA does not approve a care cost increase? What options are there? Sure, we could pay the bill, but it's a matter of principle. We hope to move the parent shortly as the MC facility looks for more and more ways to squeeze the responsible parties for increased care costs. This MC facility in Northern California recently lost a multi-million judgment in a wrongful death case. We feel they will try to raise fees at all of their MC facilities and this pattern has emerged about every 4-6 months when the parent seems about the same.
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Is She at all bathing / showering on her own? Or is this being only done by hospice when they come in for their visits?
If so, You may want to have moved into a NH/SNF. Ask Nursing staff at the MC on having mom get an outside assessment done.
The reason why is most MC are registered under Assisted Living for licensing. It may be a locked ward or secured enclosure for how the facility is designed, but how it runs for its care services is under AL. And AL means that the residents are able to do & participate in their ADLS with some assistance from their staff. (fwiw services the hospice provides do not factor in for staff services the MC itself does). If a resident requires consistent numerous daily assistance to live in this MC, the facility can add on fees to do this support. The biggest extra billing is medication management, aka help in taking their meds. AL or a MC adding on medication management as a cost to their baseline bill is kinda standard practice.
Is this correct…. that mom is eating almost all her meals in her room?
So she is not going over to the community dining room, but eating in her room. If so, that requires extra staffing time both for dietary and for housekeeping. Yeah the facilty is going to find a way to increase her bill to offset costs they incur by this. There is no “approval requirement” necessary for a facilty to raise their rates or add on fees. There’s a contract that was signed and if this MC in its contract allows rates & fees to change due to extra staffing time needed, then they can raise costs. Usually it’s a Notice of a fee increase that will start 30/60 days so it allows a resident to let the facilty know they are leaving without incurring extra costs.
If mom is being very sedentary or is bedfast for most of the day, she may be best off in a NH. For those without resources to pay, they can apply for LTC Medicaid program as it will pay for custodial costs in a NH/SNF. The program does have “at need” requirements both medical and financial, with a 5 yr lookback on financials.
An AL or MC can evict a residents. If it’s runs under AL for its licensing, the resident is there u pnder the expectation that they can in fact do most of their ADLs with assistance on occasion. AL do not have the required to do “continuity of care” that’s skilled nursing facility does. So they can be evicted, or sent to a shelter. Thats bad optics, so what tends to happen is that EMS is called and the resident goes off via EMS to the ER/ED of a hospital and then when the discharge planner at the hospital contacts the AL or the MC, they are told that the facilty will not take them back as they cannot proved the level of care needed. The next call by the discharge planner will be to family to come and pick up their elder.
perhaps laps speak with the hospice agency as to what Nh may be a better fit for your mom.
The facility I am most familiar with charges extra to routinely bring meals to a resident's room, because it is extra work. I understand your mother's reasoning for it, so it seems worthwhile to go ahead and pay for the service for her. Is she the only one, in which case you might negotiate a lower price, or are there others, so it is a set price? Or they may feel that she has declined to a point where she needs oversight in the dining room because she is at risk of choking or they found that she wasn't eating much and needed encouragement.
As for showering, state regulations here require that a resident be showered/bathed at least twice a week. Maybe an investigation revealed that they were not meeting the requirements in your state and so they are coming into compliance.
Have you talked with them about why they are making these changes for your mother?
What happens if the resident or their family refuses to move them is they get a court-order for them to be moved to another facility and they get moved. They are not allowed to just put a person out onto the curb.
Hold off paying them the increase for as long as you can. When your parent is safely in residence at a different facility, burn the old on the fee increase they're demanding.
These places get you coming and going. The only ay to get around the new fee increase the facility demands is to move your parent to a different place then hope they don't do the same. They probably will at some point though.
1) buy the product
2) do NOT buy the product.
There is no option 3, where you refuse the price but still get the product.
We all have choices and some don't show the options until you push back and ask for more info.
Ask for the medical evaluation that indicates a care cost increase is necessary and compare to the previous or initial evaluation. If you feel this is purely a money grab consult with a lawyer for options regarding eviction.
These are private facilities. They can do whatever they want. See if there is rent control in the Township the facility is in. If so, they may not be able to raise rent over a certain %. I would question the bathing. I picked how many times I wanted Mom bathed and the cost was in her personal care. 3x cost more than 2x a week.
Read your care contract signed when mother entered the facility.